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Full length stern view of the Tambor (SS-198), off Provincetown, Mass, 8 April 1940.

Bureau of Ships # 21809 from National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert.

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Tambor (SS-198), off Provincetown, Mass, 8 April 1940.

Bureau of Ships # 21810 from National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert.

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Commemorative postal cover marking the commissioning of the Tambor (SS-198), 3 June 1940.

Courtesy of Jack Treutle.

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'Up Periscope!, Up Production!. Tambor (SS-198), first of her class to be delivered to the Navy-as you would see her from a sister ship.

USN photo courtesy of Ron Reeves, HTC. USNR (ret.)

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Among the newest and most powerful of U.S. submarines, the Tambor (SS-198) was commissioned in 1940. Ten 21 inch torpedo tubes, six fore and four aft, plus its 3 inch deck gun and two anti aircraft machine guns make it a craft to be feared by the enemy. Displacement is 1,450 tons on the surface, length almost 300 feet, and speed almost 22 knots. Such submarines often have a range of 15,000 miles.

Text courtesy of CARD-O chewing gum. Photo courtesy of Tommy Trampp.

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Tambor (SS-198) underway during her shakedown period off the New England coast, circa 1940.

Commemorative post mark on the occasion of Navy Day, 27 October 1940, commemorating the participation of: Sailfish (SS-192),Seadragon (SS-194), Sealion (SS-195),Searaven (SS-196),Seawolf (SS-197), Tambor (SS-198),Tautog (SS-199),Thresher (SS-200), & Triton (SS-201).
Note: YN1 Loyal Day was a plankowner of Sealion and aboard when she was bombed on
10 December 1941.

Courtesy of Ric Hedman.

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These U.S. Navy diagrams show how the Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) was to have been used. At left is the pair of own and target dials, showing the target and the submarine. The officer making the approach had to work out the course needed to obtain a given track angle. If the two dials were mentally superimposed (as at center), they showed the angle between the courses of the submarine and the target. For a stern shot, the necessary course angle appeared opposite the angle on the bow corresponding to the desired track angle. For a bow shot, the necessary course angle was read off 180 degrees from the angle on the bow. True (as well as relative) bearings were shown on these dials because they corresponded to directions actually steered.
Arrows on the TDC indicated torpedo course and gyro angle, as shown at right (solid arrow for bow tubes, broken arrow for stern tubes). The arrows on the target dial indicated present track angle, the angle at which the torpedo would hit if it were fired at any given moment (i.e., how good a shot was likely to be).

Present track angle for a straight shot could be read off the dials by transposing the number on the outer ring opposite the submarine's disengaged axis to the target outer ring, then reading the corresponding inner number. In this example, submarine & target are on converging courses. The Tambor (SS-198-203 class) was the first designed specifically to accommodate the TDC.

The cargo ship Eisho Maru pauses for photo before taking the plunge after being torpedoed by Tambor (SS-198), 29 May 1943.

Image from United States Submarine Operations in World War II, by Theodore Roscoe via Robert Hurst.

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Tambor (SS-198) Plan view amidships, looking forward, 6 December 1943. Unidentified S-boat across the bay is one of the following: S-18 (SS-123), S-23 (SS-128), S-30 (SS-135), S-32 (SS-137), S-33 (SS-138), S-34 (SS-139), S-40 (SS-145), and S-43 (SS-154). All of these boats were on the west coast during this time. However, S-43 was known to be in San Francisco at the time of the photo and was undergoing an extensive overhaul which included the rebuilding of her aft superstructure, just like in the photo. Although I can not say for sure, I am leaning heavily towards S-43.

Photo courtesy of Japanese Naval Vessels of World War Two as seen by U.S. Naval Intelligence". Text taken from two sources: "Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945" by Jentschura, Jung and Mickel, translated by Antony Preston and J.D. Brown, and "The World's Merchant Fleets 1939" by Roger W. Jordan, courtesy of Robert Hurst.

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Broadside view of Tambor (SS-198) off Mare Island on 23 February 1945.

Forward plan view of Tambor (SS-198) at Mare Island on 24 February 1945. Shipyard records indicate that Ray (SS-271) and Greenling (SS-213) were berthed immediately aft of Tambor and behind these two boats were Cero (SS-225) and Raton (SS-270).

Routed onward to the United States, Tambor (SS-198) arrived at San Francisco on 10 December 1944. After an extended overhaul, the submarine sailed for Puget Sound on 9 March 1945. Upon her arrival there, Tambor began training operations with Navy patrol aircraft under Fleet Air Wing 6. On 17 September, she departed the west coast for Portsmouth, N.H. Tambor was decommissioned there on 10 December 1945 and placed in reserve.Officers and CPO's of the Tambor pose on 1 August 1945.

Text courtesy of DANFS. USN photo courtesy of Lance Dean.

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Award ceremony at Puget Sound for the Tambor's (SS-198) crew on 1 August 1945.

This plaque was unveiled 20 March 1995 by His Excellency Major General P.M. Jeffery OA MC, Governor of Western Australia to commemeorate the sacrifices made by Allied submarined that operated out of Fremantle, Western Australia during WW II.